The book was published in the customary twenty monthly parts, December 1855 through
June 1857, by Bradbury and Evans with a blue wrapper and forty plates designed by
Phiz. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

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Passage Illustrated

Mrs. Merdle was at home, and was in her nest of crimson and gold, with the
parrot on a neighbouring stem watching her with his head on one side, as if he took her
for another splendid parrot of a larger species. To whom entered Mrs. Gowan, with her
favourite green fan, which softened the light on the spots of bloom.

"My dear soul," said Mrs Gowan, tapping the back of her friend's hand with
this fan after a little indifferent conversation, "you are my only comfort. That affair
of Henry's that I told you of, is to take place. Now, how does it strike you? I am dying
to know, because you represent and express Society so well."

Mrs. Merdle reviewed the bosom which Society was accustomed to review;
and having ascertained that show-window of Mr Merdle's and the London jewellers' to be in
good order, replied:

"As to marriage on the part of a man, my dear, Society requires that he
should retrieve his fortunes by marriage. Society requires that he should gain by
marriage. Society requires that he should found a handsome establishment by marriage.
Society does not see, otherwise, what he has to do with marriage. Bird, be quiet!"

For the parrot on his cage above them, presiding over the conference as if
he were a judge (and indeed he looked rather like one), had wound up the exposition with
a shriek.

"Cases there are," said Mrs. Merdle, delicately crooking the little finger
of her favourite hand, and making her remarks neater by that neat action; "cases there
are where a man is not young or elegant, and is rich, and has a handsome establishment
already. Those are of a different kind. In such cases —"

Mrs. Merdle shrugged her snowy shoulders and put her hand upon the
jewel-stand, checking a little cough, as though to add, "why, a man looks out for this
sort of thing, my dear." Then the parrot shrieked again, and she put up her glass to look
at him, and said, "Bird! Do be quiet!"

"But, young men," resumed Mrs. Merdle, "and by young men you know what I
mean, my love — I mean people's sons who have the world before them — they
must place themselves in a better position towards Society by marriage, or Society really
will not have any patience with their making fools of themselves. Dreadfully worldly all
this sounds," said Mrs. Merdle, leaning back in her nest and putting up her glass again,
"does itnot?"

Commentary

The master-touch is the unsettling presence of the parrot, whose shrieking
acts as a counterpoint to Mrs. Merdle's magisterial pronouncements about marriage, as if
her own experience somehow renders her an expert. Enshrined in a canopy not unlike that
which one sees in the bedroom scenes in the homes of Dickens's more affluent characters,
the gilded cage implies the imprisoning nature of society marriage, mocking the
conception underlying the supporting cupidon (right) as a god of love, for affection has
no part in Mrs. Merdle's marriage calculations, which are entirely premised on property
and social acceptability. The specific marriage about which Mrs. Gowan is soliciting Mrs.
Merdle's advice is her son's marriage to Pet Meagles, which should have the desired
result of enabling the aristocratic Henry Gowan to "retrieve his fortunes" — that
is, to be "relieved from debt" (338), of which the profligate amateur artist has no
shortage and against which both ladies expect Mr. Meagles to make considerable outlay
prior to the wedding. Mrs. Gowan seems not entirely reconciled to Henry's "marrying
down," but acknowledges the necessity of his acquiring the additional income, "an
allowance of three hundred a year" (338) or more from the bride's father, a middle-class
businessman, and therefore (rather like Mr. Merdle) not a person "in Society" (339).
Discretely both women are thoroughly aware that, at least financially (and Society is
nothing if not mercenary), this is a very good match for spendthrift Henry Gowan.

Once the devious Mrs. Gowan has left, her mission of seeming (as far as Society goes)
to having objected mightily to her son's marrying Pet, the nature of the chapter title
becomes clear. The banker husband, having returned from the office to wander his mansion
aimlessly, stumbles upon the ladies as Mrs. Gowan is leaving. Mrs. Merdle then delivers
her famous "complaint" that her feckless husband is not fit for Society because he is
utterly lacking in manners and sophistication. This indictment she delivers from her
"ottoman," rather than the padded throne in which she is regally ensconced in the
illustration, but in other respects the illustration is almost entirely consistent with
the text. The other significant discrepancy is the depiction of a thin, elderly Mrs.
Gowan, a Hampton Court "grace-and-favour" pensioner with (caustically remarks Dickens)
one-and-a-half chins, whereas Phiz's aging widow is thin and has a pointed face. Aside
from a cameo in Phiz's The Family Dignity is
Affronted (October 1856), this the original serial's sole portrait of the
epitome of Society and her ample, jewel-bedecked bosom. The curtains in the background
imply not so much theatricality as acting or disguising one's true emotions, for Mrs.
Gowan (nowhere else depicted in the series) is merely going through the motions of
protesting the marriage, and for her part Mrs. Merdle is thoroughly aware that Pet
Meagles is a good catch.

Mrs. Merdle in The Diamond Edition, 1867

Above: Sol Eytinge Junior's illustration of Mrs. Merdle, her son, and
socially-conscious daughter-in-law in which the regal dowager is based directly on Phiz's
conception, Mrs. Merdle, Mr. Sparkler, and Fanny (1867).
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]